Has anyone used Web-ex for remote conferencing?

I just did a 2+ hours conference call this morning to Australia via Skype. It went so well I'm going to now look into Skype's video capabilities.

...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
         America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

Well, I've got to use what the client does. The other thing is that we'll have to look at numerous documents simultaneously during the conference. I am not sure whether Skype can do that. Seeing each other won't be important for us. At least I hope it won't be, else I'd have to install a web cam and stuff here.

I always wonder what the catch is with Skype. They say it's free but as we all know there ain't no free lunch. Maybe except for LTSpice.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

Skype-to-Skype is free.

Skype-to-Telco and Telco-to-Skype are not.

...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
         America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

They're hoping you'll sign up for their paid services, I imagine. When it comes to software, the cost of distribution is essentially zero, so I imagine the business model break down to:

1) Give away the software. Lose nothing, gain prominance/"mindshare," eventually some customers will purchase paid services. 2) Don't give away the software. Since there are plenty of other free offerings out there already, it's unlikely many people will pay for it so market share will probably never be anything more than a sliver and not enough to even allow us to offer paid services.

It costs money if you need to connect to the PSTN. Skype-to-Skype is free. Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

...

Well, the free software is right there, but when I went to look into the rates for Skype-to-ground, it asked me to sign up.

And I don't really know whom I'd call anyway - everybody I know has email ^ [ghaw, sometimes it's uncomfortable being an inflexible grammarian! ;-) ] or is right here in the shop. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

I have used it a year or two ago. We logged a problem with Siebel/Oracle and one of their support people wanted us to demo what the issue was. Webex allowed us somehow to share the windows desktop over the Internet.

On another occasion we used the webex recorder. That creates some kind of video of all actions you do on your PC. The recorded session can be played later.

It was not too much of a hassle I recall. But I have not used it for a while. I don't think it was appearing slow.

Cheers,

Joop

Well, tried it again. It took over 5 secs just to launch the demo meeting and then it loads the whole meeting software. Again. 8 minutes left ... trundle, trundle, trundle. I would have thought Cisco could do better than that. Nah, not my cup of tea. So I'll just log in 15 mins before the client to get through that dreaded loading of Java in time.

I found the pricing a tad steep as well. Somewhere on their site I read

33c/min/participant. That's a lot more than Missy Bell charges for overseas calls.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

Hi Jeorg, Yep, it is that slow. Takes a long while to get all the programs for that application. The bad news is, it ain't secure. Back when I was at Cadence, they quit using WebEx and when to Space Cruiser for the same functions. Spacecruiser is encrypted in its links.

Charlie Edmondson Engineering

This one?

Not a lot of info, looks like one of those high-priced software packages: "For SpaceCruiser Trial and Download, please contact Oridus sales team"

Maybe Webex changed security. The lock indicator on the browser comes on when you enter the meeting, at least it did for the test meeting. Just like when doing online orders.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

Lots of companies use Web-ex. works well. Ofcourse you need the java package to get it to work. perhaps their servers were busy.

I also was on a

webinar, which worked just as well.

Cheers

to get it to work.

Then they should get more server capacity. It wouldn't be cool if it bogged down in the middle of a meeting.

I am surprised how much competition is out there. But it's pricey. For a small biz that doesn't do more than 1-2 short meets a month $39/mo or $49/mo is a lot. Wonder why ISPs or web site hosting companies don't offer some basic virtual meeting capability, maybe at per minute fees.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

Yes, that is the one. It worked pretty well, but I have no idea on the costs associated.

I could be that Webex enhanced the security. I just know that, since we deal with a lot of DoD customers, we couldn't use Webex at the time...

Charlie

Something is wrong. I have had many Webex meetings, usually on a T1 (shared with the rest of a 20-person company) and a dual 1MHz Xeon machine with 2GB of RAM, and they ran quite fast.

You might try it on the latest FireFox 3 beta; it is quite stable and runs like a bat out of hell. You also might want to look at your dedicated firewall, if any. I have seen situations where some virus or spammer is pounding away at a firewall, the firewall rejects all the bad stuff, making it invisiblento you, but it still eats up a bunch of bandwidth and CPU on the firewall.

--
Guy Macon

The firewall is HW and would show me any pounding. None there. Well, I'll just see how it goes.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

An Internet firewall that is purely hardware? You embarrass yourself.

No he doesn't. That's standard (although not entirely precise) terminology. The term used to describe a firewall program running on the PC to be protected is "software firewall." The term used to describe a seperate box (which could be a PC on a dedicated appliance running a RTOS in ROM) is "hardware firewall." If someone using a standard but inexact term bothers you, you might start with th phrases "dial a phone" for a device with no dials or "my computer" to describe a purely software construct inside an OS. Then you can move on to Grape Nuts (not grapes, not nuts) or FireFox (not a Fox, not on fire). Good luck!

Nope, it's the sensible thing to do. Of course it runs firmware and there is additional protection on the PC side. A HW firewall is the only way I'd connect to the web since I do not trust any Windows OS in that respect. All it takes is one security whole and the best firewall SW on there is essentially toast.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

I knew you would respond correctly. Unlike that other poster, whom i expected better of. In my arrangement the ISP provides the first level, the modem provides some more, and my top level router provides yet more. Running Linux adds to that. I have a lot of hosts blocked as well.